Watch Writer/Director Rian Johnson’s Video Pitch for LOOPER
Rian Johnson has released his video pitch/”clip-o-matic” trailer for his critically acclaimed sci-fi film LOOPER. These types of pitches are common for filmmakers looking to get the funding they need by showing their prospective investors how exactly they’re bringing the story to life and what kind of tone they’re going for that might not have been completely clear through the script alone. We recently saw a great reel by Kevin Tancharoen for his version of The Hunger Games (here) and it seems to be more common for directors, whether they’re given the gig or not, to release these pitches online.
Rian Johnson on the vid:
“This is a strange curiosity I thought might be interesting – just after I finished the script for Looper but before we began preproduction I asked Joe to record some voice-over, and with help from my friend Ronen Verbit constructed this “fake trailer” using clips from other movies. This is a fairly common thing to do when you’re trying to get a movie off the ground, but it was the first time I tried it. It was meant to show more some of the film’s tone, and to show how the odd concept could be presented in a clear and compelling way in the marketing. Zach Johnson did the sketches. Note that we hadn’t begun the casting process yet, and the clips were chosen just based on their visuals and not by who is in them.”